STORIES FROM THE WEB

NHL Rumors, Who’s On Their Way Out?

August is usually the slowest time of the year for rumors, but there have been a few flying around the last few days that I think we should talk about.

Bryan McCabe waives his NMC to go to Florida
I don’t doubt for a second that he has waived it, however there is a clause in his contract that says at the beginning of September he will receive a bonus of $2 million from the Toronto Maple Leafs. So unless something can be worked out where the team trading for him agrees or is allowed to pay him that bonus, don’t expect a trade to be made official until September. Also, don’t expect Jay Bouwmeester to be coming to the Leafs in return. This guy is going to be a Norris trophy candidate one year and the Leafs just don’t have enough assets to trade for him. In fact, expect this trade to be more of a incentive for Bouwmeester to stay in Florida because the only reason he wants to leave is he feels that they aren’t playoff contenders. They have a good starting goalie with a solid defense core, all they will need to work on is putting the puck in the net. The addition of Stillman should help, I can see him doing well as the go to guy and with an expanded roll, expect Horton to thrive.

Mark Parrish is Vancouvers’ “Plan B”
There is no surprise here as he would never have been their Plan A. Vancouver needs a player to be “THE GUY” on that team. They have some guys that can be secondary scorers but lack the consistency and presence to be a #1. The twins are probably the closest to fit that mould but seeing as they haven’t been able to take “the next step” since taking over from the famous Naslund – Bertuzzi era..has the Canucks organization concerned.

Mathieu Schneider to OttawaThe Sens only have five defenseman under contract and one of them is the rookie Brian Lee. Mezsaros is asking for a ton of money and Ottawa won’t budge. That’s not a situation that the Sens are comfortable with. I can see them dangling Chris Neil as bait and I think he would be a good fit with Anaheim’s aggressive style of play. If this rumor comes to fruition, it would be a good trade for both teams.

Hemsky/Higgins deal and Nylander on the moveI can see the Edmonton Oilers being interested in Chris Higgins as he is an Oiler type of player, but I don’t know why the Habs would be interested in Hemsky. If this is true, it has to be a plan B incase the habs don’t land Mats Sundin, in which case I totally understand. As for the Nylander rumor, maybe he likes to invest and flip homes in his spare time…Not likely! After the Capitals played extremely well without Nylander during the second half of the season, and the re-signing of Sergei Fedorov, I think the writing is on the wall for Nylander’s departure. Will the Oilers have any hard feelings after they thought they had signed him during the off-season before he bolted to Washington for more money?